Irish travel to Winston-Salem for a game with the Deacons. This game was originally going to be played in the NFL stadium in Charlotte. But obviously with no fans it makes no sense. Clemson opened the season at Wake with no fans. Wake is 0-2 having lost to Clemson and in a shootout to NC State 45-42. irish will be without those same players that didn't play last week vs USF. Hopefully their backups, who played extremely well, will have great games again. I am starting to see reports that there will be some additional players out for Wake Forrest, but nothing official. The Wake QB, Sam Hartman, is the guy that the Irish defense literally knocked out of the game the last time we played (2018). He took a beating that day, started but didn't finish the game. Kelly was asked about handling Covid. He said they are now testing the OL and DL on a daily basis, trying to get ahead of the curve. He was also asked if he had a plan if he were to test positive and he said he did but wouldn't elaborate. As a fan I am hoping that the next man up success we had against USF continues against Wake Forrest. I don't expect to shut them out, as Wake has a much different situation than USF. They have an offensive system, they have an QB who has played it and done well, they have a stable coaching staff. They have more talent than USF. Clemson handled them relatively easily at 37-13, so that would be a benchmark for the Irish. I also hope we see an improved passing game, granted it's nice to see success with the TE's like Tommy Tremble and Baby Gronk, but success with the WR's like Braden Lenzy, Javon McKinley, etc is necessary for this team to truly contend to be in the conversation for the CFP. On the teams Covid routine. "We have a protocol in place relative to when they can be released and It's been in place since June. So, we'll continue to utilize that when we have players that are in quarantine. Isolation is a little different. Obviously if you've tested positive for COVID, you have to go through a different procedure and protocol. You've got to have a EKG and certainly a number of different evaluations first, before you can come back. The quarantine and isolation is a little bit different. When they are able to test negative twice and they get to a second negative test, we can begin a modified conditioning program with those guys. When they come back after 14 days on their own, they have a modified quarantine workout program that gets them back in pretty good shape.” Link to article on his press conference. Everything Brian Kelly Said Ahead of Notre Dame vs. Wake Forest
ND/Wake might not come off... Notre Dame will not practice today, its regularly scheduled Tuesday afternoon session as Brian Kelly’s 2-0 Irish prepare to take on Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C., Saturday afternoon. This news comes in the wake of four positive Covid-19 tests last week among Irish players that resulted in six more student-athletes quarantined due to contact tracing. Late scratches from Saturday’s 52-0 victory over South Florida for undisclosed reasons included two-deep depth chart players TaRiq Bracy, Brendon Clark, Marist Liufau, Ovie Oghoufo, Shayne Simon, and Jahmir Smith. Sources told Irish Illustrated that at least three players tested positive this week. Efforts to reach Notre Dame for a comment were unsuccessful. Kelly noted the following of missed game week practices when discussing the topic on September 1. “I would say if you canceled probably two of your practices and those probably being the two earliest practices in the week,” he said. “You certainly can't be physical late in the week and one of them is probably a travel day. I would say if you're out of business Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, you're in trouble for having a team that can practice and be prepared. "Now, that would require you to have not assembled your group in a manner that would mean you've knocked out everybody and you feel like there is going to be a lot of transmission on the field. We've been in a number of situations where we don't believe there's going to be heavy transmission on the field. That's assuming a lot of things go wrong and if they do, my answer to the question would be if you lose two or three days early in the week, you're hard-pressed to get your team ready.”
Sounds like at least 23 players out, 13 + and 10 via contact tracing. Program completely shutdown for the week. Like most I am really disappointed, I didn't see this coming.
I am afraid this may turn out to be the norm for many programs. Ohio State and the Big Ten is hoping rapid testing may solve this problem?
ND/Wake Forrest is rescheduled to Dec 12. ACC Champ game is Dec 19. This team had a lot of momentum coming off of that USF victory, now with no practices or lifting this week and an open date next week before FSU comes to South Bend, they have potentially lost a lot of momentum. It really sucks to say the least. We don't know at this point who was involved in the latest round of positives. We knew for the most part who was involved last week by looking at who wasn't suited up. But no game this week and no doubt due to HIPAA we won't be able to figure it out.
Unrelated to the ND football/Covid issue... But ND has announced that the Spring Semester will start Feb 3, 2021. That means the students will have Dec and Jan off as the fall semester ends before Thanksgiving. That is a long time off for the students. It does mean that basketball will have 2 months of no school and basketball only, since the season is set to start Nov 25th I don't know exactly what their schedule is going to be though as I haven't seen one posted yet.
The move of this game to Dec 12, leaves the Irish with a Bye week on Nov 21st. Any other disruptions would only have that week to reschedule into, but it's likely not to be that easy. It'd have to be a school who also has a bye week Nov 21st otherwise you'd be looking at multiple schools moving games around. I'd guess that the result is that the ACC would tell ND...you just lose a game. That of course brings up the possibility that we could lose say to Clemson on Nov 7th as our only loss, and say UNC the other team people think might make a run at the ACC Champ game with Clemson also loses to Clemson but is able to play all of their scheduled games, so Irish sit at 8-1 in ACC play and UNC sits at 9-1 in ACC play. Logic says UNC gets the nod I guess, but what if ND loses 17-16 to Clemson and UNC loses 43-10 to Clemson. Does that make a difference?
Good article on recruiting on ISD, it's a free article. It points out how hard it is to get into that elite level that Clemson occupies when you are doing well in recruiting but not at the same level that Clemson is doing right now. That really applies to Alabama and Ohio State as well, both of whom also load up every year with elite recruits. You could add in Georgia right now as well. __________________________________________ It’s never surprising when Notre Dame fans get upset about seeing a commitment from a 3-star prospect. It’s not meant as disrespect to that player who committed. It’s more frustration because they know how well the competition is recruiting. Clemson is in a select group above where Notre Dame is at right now. There aren’t too many others with them because there aren’t exactly a ton of programs that can say they’ve won more than 33 games in the last three seasons like the Irish have. Clemson has. They’ve won 41. They also aren’t getting any worse with the way they’ve recruited. They signed a top-3 class in the 2020 cycle, which included five 5-stars and 17 total blue-chip prospects (4 or 5-stars). This cycle has looked pretty similar for them. They have 15 players committed and 14 of them are considered blue-chippers. Notre Dame is going to have to face those commitments in 2022 and 2023, so what Clemson is doing now in recruiting is relevant to what Notre Dame will have to overcome in the future. It won’t be an easy hill to climb with all of the potential difference-makers Dabo Swinney is adding. ________________________________________________ Clemson Continues to Compile Elite Talent
What I was asking Terry, how could ND and NC both only have 1 loss (to Clemson) if we play each other?
OK I misread the question. You are correct, UNC/ND will settle it on the field for 2nd place (maybe).
Irish lose a verbal, cb Phillip Riley. He was originally from Washington but lives in Fla right now. He never visited ND due to COVID-19. He supposedly will end up at USC as he wants to be on the West Coast. Irish have some options to replace him, we'll have to see.
It does look like WR Deion Colzie who was once committed to ND and then backed off is going to come back to the Irish. He's a 4 star top 100 player. Most of the stories I've read about him say that his Mom really wanted him at ND for the combination of academics and football. I wonder if the Irish will be back at practice this week, I hope so. But I haven't seen any word. Brian Kelly would ordinarily have a press conference Monday of game week, but since this is an open date I don't know when or if he will have anything to say this week. If we don't get back to practice this week it will be really disruptive to the team. Missing 2 weeks of practice...players with bumps and bruises will benefit but position groups like the OL esp will suffer and so will the QB/WR dynamic which has been shaky to start the season anyway. Next game will be FSU on Oct 10th, they aren't looking like a very good team right now..but if we don't practice for 2 weeks leading into game week with them, that is not good.
Also I'm still not seeing a basketball schedule for either the Irish men or womens team. All I know is that things are full go for Nov 25th according to the NCAA.
As predicted...4 star, top 100 WR, Deion Colzie has recommitted to the Irish. Hope he sticks this time!